June 18, 2015 – The Benefits of Chasing Summer Storms – A Northampton County, PA Assortment of Trout

A fearless little wild brown trout.

With rain in the forecast for Thursday—a good rain, finally—Kenny and I were texting back and forth on Wednesday bemoaning the state of the local creeks and lakes.  Everything is hot and weeded up to the point of making fishing almost pointless, and it’s only June!  Even freestone streams in the Poconos are hitting 70+ by midday each day.  Knowing I love to fish during and after the rain (Kenny, not so much!) he asked where I would go fishing on Thursday.  I told him I would probably target a short list of limestoners within an hour’s drive for trout, knowing the water would be cool and the rain would make the usually finicky fish a little stupider.  At some point, I said if he could be at my house at 4:30 AM, I had a decent plan in mind for maybe 5 hours of fishing before going to work late, and he quickly yet reluctantly agreed.  The plan was to drive to a special regulations stretch that almost always has cold water and plenty of it.

Stained, good flow and good, cool temperatures.

I awoke at 3:45 AM on Thursday to the encouraging sound of heavy rain outside the window.  It was still raining steadily as Ken arrived at my house, and we began our 50 minute ride to a Northampton County limestoner.  I had dreams of hooking one of the shy monsters hiding in its deep pools, so I decided to throw a big Rapala CD 5 on the spinning rod.  I expected a learning curve, as I had not fished for trout with the spinning rod since Opening Day on the Brodhead.  To compound things, I had opted to leave the spool of Nanofil on my spinning combo of choice today, partly out of laziness and partly in the spirit of experimentation.  I have tried to throw plugs and spinners for trout with “superlines” in the past and ultimately didn’t like that the zero-stretch meant I felt every hit (good) and then set the hook too hard or fast, missing many fish (bad).  Monofilament and even the cast-able 100% fluorocarbon I have been throwing as of late are far more forgiving for my style of fishing, and today proved that again, perhaps. 

We arrived at the parking area at 5:30 AM.  I drove past it the first time thinking this can’t be it because it was paved and lined and landscaped since the last time I was here in probably February of 2014, but it was the place.  It’s amazing what cities and counties will do for access points when bikers, joggers, and strollers start using a park more than the lowly anglers.  The water looked great, just stained enough, and it was still drizzling and cloudy.  In fact, it stayed gray, humid, and misting all morning, so the pictures look terrible or ethereal, depending on your point of view.

A dreamy (or just hazy) rainbow shot?

I had my first little wild brown, who hit a plug 1/3 his size, within 5 minutes of dropping into the creek, so I was feeling confident that I made the right call.  When I saw fish rising in the bend above us, I was happier still, despite second-guessing my choice to throw the spinning rod instead of the fly rod.  As I worked my way up to the deep pool at the first bend, I saw signs of many trout rising and quickly missed about 4 fish on the plug.  Nanofil casts a mile, which adds to stealth, but I was pulling the plug away from the fish, who as wild fish were already experts at avoiding being caught.  Eventually, I coached myself to ease up on the hookset, and I had my second, third and fourth brown trout in my new rubber basket, catch and release net.

Most fish hit the Rapala CD 5 and barely got hooked.  One of two hold-over browns we found living among the wild.

Ken too was learning that wild fish can hit something with 6 chemically sharpened hook points, and still manage to escape capture. In only waist-high waders, he was also trying to figure out how to navigate this challenging spot, but after a few swings and misses of his own he got on the board with a healthy rainbow that had made its way into unstocked waters.  He did well for the morning with soft plastics on a jighead in the deep runs and pocket water too.  Playing hopscotch, we pretty much kept pace of each other within a fish or two, each ending the morning close to double digits. We caught a mix of stocked and wild, rainbow, brook, and brown, and both missed as many as we landed, though his hook up ratio was much better than mine.  My most memorable fish was a big hold-over rainbow that I picked out of a small, swift pocket in a set of mild rapids.  

Despite sort of figuring how to hook fish with the superline, I missed a lot and even dropped 4 or more fish that were hooked, so I think I will be returning to mono and fluorocarbon after

A few brookies in the mix too.

this experiment.  Fly fishing so much this year probably didn’t help with my spinning gear proficiency either, but I have enjoyed that too much to change my current fishing direction!

I saw a couple decent sized trout follow the plug and not commit, but I didn’t see any of the monster wild browns I had hoped to see.  Ken, however, had a huge fish follow his jig at the base of the falls where the special regulations area ended.  I was content to land one of her little offspring here, another 10 inch wild brown.

Another healthy wild brown.

After climbing out of the creek and walking back along the road to the Subaru, we tried fishing the section below the car, a stocked section, with limited success.  Ken landed a nice brown below a falls, while I turned a couple small browns with a CD 1 in the shallower runs below.  We ended the day by dropping down to investigate one final deep hole close to our parking spot, where we both managed a nice, holdover rainbow a piece before heading for home by 10:30 AM.  It’s amazing what a little rain, a little black book of streams, and a commitment to getting up before the crack of dawn can do to improve summer fishing.  Let the storm chasing season begin…

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